1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to broadcast materials, and more particularly to a system and method for dynamically substituting broadcast material and targeting to specific audiences.
2. Related Art
The proliferation of processors and processor-based systems in recent years has led to a tremendous increase in the ability of businesses, industry and individuals to share information. Most computers and workstations in today""s homes and offices are connected in some manner to another computer or workstation, either locally or remotely. An early form of such inter-connection of computing systems is the local area network (LAN). Using LAN technology, several computers, workstations, peripherals, or other related devices can be connected to share data among one another and to share network resources.
The Internet can be thought of as an extension of local area network technology. The Internet originally began as a communication network through which government researchers, scientists and other personnel could exchange data or other information between offices and facilities throughout the world. Eventually, the Internet became accessible to the public. Initially, the public was slow to embrace the Internet, and it seemed as if the Internet would remain nothing more than a way for a select group of technologists to exchange e-mails and other data or information. Eventually, however, entrepreneurs who envisioned the growth of the consumer market for Internet services were able to attract a large number of consumers into the fold. As a result, a sort of snowball effect ensued in which more and more consumers become Internet users, and in turn, more and more businesses rushed to get web pages set up on an Internet server. With more businesses offering information, products and services on the Web, more consumers were attracted to the Internet. This cycle rapidly fed on itself virtually creating an explosion on the Internet.
However, the proliferation of the Internet did not stop with the provision of web pages to the Internet users, or web surfers. In the true capitalistic spirit, providers of popular web pages found that they were able to sell advertising space on their web pages. Thus, the Internet became not only a way for businesses to advertise their own businesses on their web pages, but also a way for advertisers to include their ads on others"" web pages.
Seemingly overnight, the Internet had transformed into the new advertising medium of the decade. Virtually every business and industry jumped on to the Internet bandwagon. On top of that, hundreds, if not thousands, of new businesses were created to offer Internet-related services. It seemed as if just about everyone was able to capitalize on this new medium.
However, in spite of this proliferation, there were still a few business that were left out of the Internet craze. One example of such a business is the radio industry. Although stations could offer their own web sites on the Internet, such sites typically were not popular among the web surfers, and thus were not a good source of advertising revenues. Thus, even though radio stations could participate in the Internet, their only gains from doing so were PR-related.
Eventually, enterprising web developers decided that they could offer a mechanism by which one or more radio stations or radio networks could offer their broadcast materials over the Internet. One popular Internet site offering this service is www.broadcast.com, although there are others. While many radio stations have agreed to provide their programming across the Internet by such service providers, most have found that this has not led to an increase their advertising revenues. Although these providers offer an excellent service to radio stations and their listeners, most advertisers are not willing to pay a premium for advertising slots simply because the broadcast material is additionally offered to listeners over the Internet. Thus, even though these services allowed radio stations to further participate in the Internet-related industry, their ability to fully take advantage of Internet opportunities is still somewhat limited.
Solutions to this problem have been disclosed in several previously filed patent applications listed below. These applications have been filed by a common assignee, Radiowave.com, of the present patent application. Solutions disclosed by these patent applications relate to systems and methods for supplementing Internet radio broadcasts with coordinated and related audio and visual content. These United States Patent Applications are:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,784, issued on Nov. 13, 2001, entitled xe2x80x9cSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING BROADCAST MATERIAL HISTORYxe2x80x9d;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,329, issued on Feb. 19, 2002, entitled, xe2x80x9cSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COORDINATING SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS WITH BROADCAST MATERIALxe2x80x9d;
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/163,297, filed on Sep. 29, 1998 entitled xe2x80x9cSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PLAYING SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS WITH BROADCAST MATERIALxe2x80x9d;
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/163,288, filed on Sep. 29, 1998 entitled xe2x80x9cSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COORDINATING COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK ADVERTISING MATERIALxe2x80x9d; and
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/172,064, filed on Oct. 13, 1998 entitled xe2x80x9cSYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUDIENCE MEASUREMENTxe2x80x9d.
Each of the these above referenced patent applications are of common assignee and each are fully incorporated by reference herein as though set forth in full.
A problem encountered by using the above systems and methods relates to the advertising spots of local radio stations. The advertising spots that are traditionally broadcast in a relatively narrow market are now getting virtually unlimited coverage in a national and worldwide market over the Internet.
The problem is that local advertisers may not benefit from this increased exposure and are therefore not willing to pay for the increased distribution of their radio advertisements. Further, advertisers that could benefit from these wide distribution markets are not able to participate in a convenient fashion. Thus, it would be desirable to substitute, in real time, different advertisements for local and/or unsold advertisement spots when such spots are widely distributed by Internet broadcasts.
Additional background information on the use of computer networks as a broadcast medium is available from xe2x80x9cBROADCAST AND DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND METHOD,xe2x80x9d U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/961,314, filed Oct. 30, 1997, and xe2x80x9cAUDIO CONTENT PLAYER METHODS AND ARTICLES OF MANUFACTURE,xe2x80x9d U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/976,971, filed Nov. 25, 1997 now abandoned, both of which are fully incorporated by reference herein as though set forth in full.
The present invention is directed toward systems and methods for providing enhanced features for the delivery of broadcast material to a listener, viewer or, more generally, a user. According to one aspect of the invention, supplemental materials can be provided to a user in a coordinated fashion with the broadcast materials being delivered. The supplemental materials can be provided in a coordinated fashion such that they relate to the actual broadcast materials as they are being streamed or otherwise delivered to the user. For example, according to one embodiment, the broadcast material is delivered to the user in segments such as, for example, tracks of music, advertisements, and promotional materials in a radio broadcast. In this embodiment, the supplemental materials can be coordinated with the individual segments (e.g., tracks) such that supplemental materials relating to the segments can be provided as the segments are being provided to the user.
Supplemental materials can include, for example, images, video clips, audio clips, data, or other materials that may be provided to the user in conjunction with the broadcast materials. The supplemental materials can also include advertising information that is provided to the user during particular segments of the broadcast material. In one embodiment, this advertising information can be coordinated with the particular segments of the broadcast material such that the value of the advertising is enhanced.
One example application of this aspect of the invention is found in the broadcast of radio broadcast materials over the Internet. According to this example application, the radio broadcast materials can include a plurality of tracks that can be streamed to a user via the Internet. The tracks can include, for example, music tracks, advertising tracks, DJ voice or introduction tracks, promotional tracks, and any other track that a station my wish to broadcast as part of its broadcast material. In one embodiment, the tracks are provided along with program data that can indicate, for example, an identification of the track, the type of track, and other pertinent or relevant information regarding the particular track being broadcast at that time. This information can be provided to an Internet broadcast service provider that xe2x80x9cbroadcastsxe2x80x9d the broadcast materials and the program data to the listener""s Internet terminal.
The listener receives the broadcast material and the program data via the Internet connection and plays it on his or her computer, workstation or other Internet terminal. This can be a web page type player or a downloaded player that is resident on the user""s terminal. When the user""s terminal receives a track to be played, the user""s terminal takes the program data associated with that track and uses that data to access one or more servers to retrieve the supplemental information.
One aspect of the present invention is that it allows advertisers to take full advantage of the wide distribution market available when broadcasting over the Internet. An advantage of the present invention is that it increases the value and potential revenues generated for advertisement spots in radio broadcasting by providing for the dynamic substitution of advertisements when broadcasting over a wide distribution network, such as the Internet. For example, a local advertisement that is not suitable for wide distribution market is replaced with a national advertisement that is targeted to a national or worldwide market.
Further, the present invention provides for the selection of substituted advertisements based on the demographics of actual listeners. This is accomplished by taking into account user demographics that are determined by user surveys or the like.
In one embodiment, an insertion and encoder system monitors broadcasts from an on-air system to determine the presence of an advertisement segment. Once an advertisement segment is identified, the system and method determines whether the advertisement has been sold to for the xe2x80x9cglobal marketxe2x80x9d (i.e. in this example, for wide-range, Internet-based radio broadcasting).
If the ad has been sold for the global market, it is then broadcast over the Internet as is. However, if the ad has not been sold for the global market, the system and method of the present invention accesses an inventory of advertisements that have been sold for the global market. From this inventory, an advertisement is selected in accordance with predefined criteria that includes variety of parameters, depending on each specific implementation of the present invention.
In one embodiment, those parameters include user demographics so that advertisements are targeted to specific users or groups of users. In another embodiment, personal preferences, and user actions, such as web-based buying habits and the like, are taken into account to select an appropriate substituted advertisement.